Regulations Amending the Quebec Fishery Regulations, 1990: SOR/2018-55

Canada Gazette, Part II: Volume 152, Number 8

Registration

March 27, 2018

FISHERIES ACT

P.C. 2018-334 March 26, 2018

Her Excellency the Governor General in Council, on the recommendation of the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, pursuant to section 43footnotea of the Fisheries Act footnoteb, makes the annexed Regulations Amending the Quebec Fishery Regulations, 1990.

Regulations Amending the Quebec Fishery Regulations, 1990

Amendments

1 The definitions large and small in section 2 of the Quebec Fishery Regulations, 1990 footnote1 are replaced by the following:

large means, in respect of an Atlantic salmon, 63 cm or more in length; (grand)

small means, in respect of an Atlantic salmon, 30 cm in length or longer and less than 63 cm in length; (petit)

2 (1) Paragraph 5(2)(e) of the Regulations is replaced by the following:

(2) Subsection 5(5) of the Regulations is replaced by the following:

(5) If a person referred to in paragraph (2)(c) or (e) catches an Atlantic salmon, that person shall without delay return the fish to the waters in which it was caught and, if the fish is alive, release it in a manner that causes the least harm to the fish.

3 Subsection 13(3) of the Regulations is replaced by the following:

(3) An Atlantic salmon that is caught and retained shall be tagged by the person who hooked it with a valid tag issued with that person’s licence.

4 Section 24 of the Regulations is renumbered as subsection 24(1) and is amended by adding the following:

(2) Despite paragraph 24(1)(c), the holder of a licence set out in paragraph 2(b) or (e) of Part I of Schedule 5 may, if that licence has expired on a previous day under paragraph 23(2)(a), buy another licence of the same type for the next day.

5 Section 36 of the Regulations is replaced by the following:

36 No person shall catch and retain in any year more than four Atlantic salmon and, of those, all four can be small or three can be small and one may be large.

6 Schedule 3 to the Regulations is amended by adding the following after paragraph (h) under the common name “Crayfish (Écrevisses)”:

Column 1

Common Name

Column 2

Scientific Name

Crayfish (Écrevisses)

  
  • (i) Yabby (Écrevisse de Murray)
  • (i) Cherax destructor

7 Schedule 3 to the Regulations is amended by adding the following in alphabetical order:

Column 1

Common Name

Column 2

Scientific Name

Stone moroko (Faux gardon)

Pseudorasbora parva

8 Schedule 4 to the Regulations is amended by adding the following in alphabetical order:

9 (1) Paragraph 2(b) of Part 1 of Schedule 5 to the Regulations is replaced by the following:

Item

Type of Licence

2

(b) resident (3 consecutive days)

(2) Paragraph 2(e) of Part 1 of Schedule 5 to the Regulations is replaced by the following:

Item

Type of Licence

2

(e) non-resident (3 consecutive days)

Coming into Force

10 These Regulations come into force on the day on which they are registered.

REGULATORY IMPACT ANALYSIS STATEMENT

(This statement is not part of the Regulations.)

Issues

Due to fluctuations in the overall Atlantic salmon population in Quebec, amendments to the Quebec Fishery Regulations, 1990 (QFR, 1990) [SOR/90-214] are required to increase the duration of short-term licences and to better manage the annual quota, certification of young fishers and tagging rules for the Atlantic salmon sport fishery in the province. Inconsistencies between sections of the QFR, 1990 and other regulatory tools regarding bait fish require amendments to be made to the QFR, 1990 to include additional species to the list of species that cannot be used as bait fish.

Background

In Quebec, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) is responsible for managing fisheries for marine species (i.e. those that live only in salt water). These fisheries are found in the Saguenay River, the St. Lawrence Estuary, and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The purpose of the QFR, 1990 made pursuant to the Fisheries Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. F-14) is to regulate fishing activities for freshwater, anadromous and catadromous species in provincial and tidal waters. Under a federal-provincial agreement, the Government of Quebec, through the Ministère des Forêts, de la Faune et des Parcs (MFFP), issues sport fishing licences and manages freshwater aquatic species and anadromous and catadromous species such as eel, sea trout, smelt, salmon and striped bass in the province through the QFR, 1990. The province of Quebec’s MFFP requested regulatory amendments to the QFR, 1990. All amendments to the Regulations must be made by the Governor in Council.

The last amendments to the QFR, 1990, which came into force on April 1, 2009, concerned simplifying the definition of fish “length” (SOR/2011-155 and SOR/2012-47). Since that amendment, the MFFP identified a number of adjustments that should be made to the QFR, 1990 to adapt to current conditions surrounding the management of the Atlantic salmon fishery, to simplify enforcement and to improve consistency with Quebec’s Regulation respecting aquaculture and the sale of fish (RASF) [CQLR, chapter C-61.1, r. 7].

Objectives

The primary objectives of the amendments are to improve the regulatory management tools applied to Quebec’s Atlantic salmon sport fishery to better manage the fishery as the species population fluctuates and to facilitate the recruitment of new Atlantic salmon fishers to generate greater economic benefits.

The amendments also aim to improve consistency between the QFR, 1990 and Quebec’s RASF with regard to bait fishing by adding to the QFR, 1990 certain species of fish prohibited for use as bait in Quebec’s RASF.

Description

In regards to the management of the Atlantic salmon fishery, the following amendments have been made:

  1. The number of Atlantic salmon that can be kept per year throughout the province (i.e. the maximum annual quota) was changed from seven Atlantic salmon to four Atlantic salmon and, of those, four small may be kept or three small and one large may be kept. The definitions of “large” and “small” Atlantic salmon were also updated.
  2. Tagging of fish by the person who hooks the Atlantic salmon is now required in all of the province’s watercourses. Other than in wildlife reserves and on certain rivers it was a practice of some fishers to hook an Atlantic salmon and then pass the line to another fisher, who would then catch it and attach a tag issued with his or her licence. The amendment ensures that, in all of the province’s watercourses, this practice is prohibited and the tag attached to keep an Atlantic salmon must have been issued to the person who hooked the fish.
  3. The amendments modify the species of fish that can be caught by Quebec residents under age 18 who are in possession of a certificate issued in respect of the “Pêche en herbe” or “Relève à la pêche” program. It is now possible for such fishers to catch Atlantic salmon according to the programs’ conditions while systematically requiring the Atlantic salmon to be released.
  4. The previous one-day licence for Atlantic salmon sport fishing was amended to become a three-consecutive-days licence for residents and non-residents so that newcomers to the sport can lengthen their fishing experience without having to obtain an annual licence.

    5. The regulatory amendments propose a better alignment between the QFR, 1990 and Quebec’s RASF:

  5. The list of fish species not to be used as bait has been amended with the addition of the following species: blueback herring (alose d’été; Alosa aestivalis), Chinese mitten crab (crabe chinois à mitaine; Eriocherir sinensis), rusty crayfish (écrevisse à taches rouges; Oronectes rusticus), yabby (écrevisse de Murray; Cherax destructor), stone moroko (faux Gardon; Pseudorasbora parva) and rudd (gardon rouge; Scardinius erythrophtalmus). For consistency purposes, the yabby and stone moroko were also added to Schedule 3 of the QFR, 1990 which lists common and scientific names of fish species.

“One-for-One” Rule

The “One-for-One” Rule requires regulatory changes that increase administrative burden costs to be offset with equal reductions in administrative burden. In addition, ministers are required to remove at least one regulation when they introduce a new one that imposes administrative burden costs on business.

The “One-for-One” Rule does not apply to the proposal, because there are no changes in the administrative costs that businesses have to pay.

Small business lens

The objective of the small business lens is to reduce regulatory costs on small businesses without compromising the health, safety, security and environment of Canadians.

The small business lens does not apply, because the proposal does not result in any costs (or it results in minimal costs) to small businesses.

Consultation

The MFFP brings together its key partners from the wildlife sector through an advisory body known as the Table nationale de la faune (the Table). The Table, legally recognized under the Act Respecting the Conservation and Development of Wildlife (CQLR, chapter C-61.1), advises the Minister of Forests, Wildlife and Parks on wildlife conservation and development issues, especially those concerning the development and promotion of hunting, fishing and trapping. This forum is used to discuss and, when necessary, resolve a number of wildlife issues (including fishery issues) while giving key stakeholders the opportunity to express their opinions, needs and expectations. The key stakeholders for issues related to fishers are part of the Table. The Table also plays a key role in consultations as the MFFP consults on regulatory changes through the Table.

Until June 2015, the Table regularly received and reviewed suggestions from stakeholders on amendments that could be to be made to the QFR, 1990. Additionally, more specific consultations were also conducted with fisheries managers and fishers to take into account the issues related to Atlantic salmon conservation and fishing. All stakeholders in regions with salmon rivers were consulted under the Salmon Management Plan that came into effect on April 1, 2016. Salmon fishers and managers therefore had an opportunity to comment on the changes related to the Atlantic salmon sport fishery.

As part of the development of the Atlantic Salmon Management Plan 2016–2026, several consultation sessions were conducted in 2015.

The changes to the Atlantic salmon sport fishery are, by and large, strongly supported by the stakeholder groups concerned. This support is particularly reinforced by conservation concerns given the low upstream migration of large salmon (63 cm or more) at the beginning of the 2014 fishing season and the closure of the fishery in most rivers in the province at the beginning of the 2015 fishing season.

A small proportion of salmon fishers and managers were unsupportive of decreasing the annual quota for Atlantic salmon; however, this reduction is required in order to ensure the conservation of the resource. In addition, it should be noted that some were unsupportive because they considered that the reduction was insufficient.

Other changes designed to strengthen prohibitions and clarify the regulations have not been the subject of extensive consultations with stakeholder groups since these changes do not have a negative impact on them.

Rationale

The Government of Quebec asked that changes be made to the QFR, 1990 to better manage the Atlantic salmon sport fishery to meet environmental, social and economic objectives. Without compromising the river-by-riverfootnote2 approach applied in Quebec, the amendments allow the province to fine-tune the sport fishery for Atlantic salmon based on general fluctuations in population, adjusting catches to the status of the resource and better distributing these catches among fishers. This improved distribution of catches and the change to promote fishing among the new fishers should ensure the continued existence of the Atlantic salmon fishery, while the extension of the period of validity of a salmon licence from one to three consecutive days will generate economic benefits associated with longer outings. It is anticipated that strengthening prohibitions in the QFR, 1990 will contribute to the conservation of Atlantic salmon in Quebec.

The changes intended to clarify the regulations around bait fish and to make the bait fish prohibitions in the QFR, 1990 more consistent with Quebec’s RASF will facilitate the government’s communication and enforcement of the QFR, 1990.

In addition, the amendments do not impose any incremental costs on stakeholders, Canadians or the federal government.

Contact

Lina Seto
Senior Policy Advisor
Legislative and Regulatory Affairs
Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Ottawa, Ontario
Email:
lina.seto@dfo-mpo.gc.ca